# Best class taken in high school



## Monello

I didn't know where to stick this topic.  This seemed like a good place.

What was the best class you took in high school?

Looking back the typing class I took in my sophomore year gave me the best bang for the buck.  I didn't realize it at the time but touch typing is a very useful skill that has served me well over the years.


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## vraiblonde

History and Social Studies.  Surprise surprise.  I looked forward to them every day.


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## littlelady

English and Spanish.  I did win statewide in a competition for best typist and shorthand back in 1970, but that doesn’t matter, anymore.


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## GURPS

History - 'nuff siad
Graphics Arts - learned Off Set Printing how to run an AB Dick 360 Press, making plates, stripping up a negative - Photography developing B&W film, making prints
Construction [basic wall building, solder a pipe joint, set a door put a lock in a door]


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## mAlice

Even before HS, I loved history, but my favorite class was the one that I could sleep in.


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## Gilligan

Toss-up between Physics and Chemistry. 

I disliked most if not all of my history classes because I found them shallow and boring; I've been a very intense history buff since I was in grade school and read every history book I could get my hands on (still do), so what was in the text books was pretty lean and already familiar stuff.


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## Merlin99

Vocational electronics, forty years later I still remember the theories I learned there.


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## mAlice

Gilligan said:


> Toss-up between Physics and Chemistry.
> 
> I disliked most if not all of my history classes because I found them shallow and boring; I've been a very intense history buff since I was in grade school and read every history book I could get my hands on (still do), so what was in the text books was pretty lean and already familiar stuff.



I don't come from an educated family, so school was my introduction to history, along with everything else.  My book shelves are jam packed with history, along with old civics, social studies, literature, physics...If the SHTF, I have my own library.  But, yeah, history.  Those who don't know it, are doomed to repeat it.  Those who do know it, will know how to handle those who choose repeat it.


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## vraiblonde

Gilligan said:


> I disliked most if not all of my history classes because I found them shallow and boring; I've been a very intense history buff since I was in grade school and read every history book I could get my hands on (still do), so what was in the text books was pretty lean and already familiar stuff.



I had the most amazing History teacher - Aldie Johnson.  He not only taught the subject, but also the lead in and aftermath to give us a big picture and global perspective, and how it all ties in together.  I had him for American History I and II, and World History as well.  Easily my favorite teacher.


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## Bird Dog

civ·ics
/ˈsiviks/Submit
noun
the study of the rights and duties of citizenship.


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## Gilligan

vraiblonde said:


> I had the most amazing History teacher - Aldie Johnson.  He not only taught the subject, but also the lead in and aftermath to give us a big picture and global perspective, and how it all ties in together.  I had him for American History I and II, and World History as well.  Easily my favorite teacher.



Huge factor, of course. I don't even recall a single one of my History teacher's names.   As it turned out, the two of my most favorite teachers were the ones I had for Physics and Chemistry. To this day I still give them a lot of credit for the career path I ended up choosing.


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## frequentflier

I loved English and liked History in grammar school. I completed 9th grade at a high school I hated and didn't like any of the classes, teachers or fellow students. Dropped out and got my GED at 16.


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## limblips

Merlin99 said:


> Vocational electronics, forty years later I still remember the theories I learned there.



Yeah, that and auto mechanics.   Maybe not as glamorous as the STEM route but I have saved a lot of money over the years repairing my own stuff.  I have also scored many a case of beer and some cash repairing things for others so it has paid off!  There is a smug satisfaction in repairing things that others just throw away.  My SO hates trash day because I am always bringing something home to fix and give away or sell.


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## vraiblonde

limblips said:


> Yeah, that and auto mechanics.   Maybe not as glamorous as the STEM route but I have saved a lot of money over the years repairing my own stuff.



Not to mention the world needs auto mechanics and other people who solve our everyday problems.  I'd like to see more focus on that sort of thing than STEM.


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## black dog

vraiblonde said:


> Not to mention the world needs auto mechanics and other people who solve our everyday problems.  I'd like to see more focus on that sort of thing than STEM.



The St Mary's Co Tech center is full of kids everyday. My son took the cnc machine class for two years, he learned the basics for running a cnc machine. The important part was, he learned how to write cnc code.. It's a job getter about anywhere.

Edit, 
 I believe they should give kids real life assessment tests when entering JHS and start to guide them on career paths that work with their positives. 
 A kid that has 4-5 years worth of welding, body shop, nursing,cooking and so on will be so better prepared to enter the job market in a few years..


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## Gilligan

limblips said:


> My SO hates trash day because I am always bringing something home to fix and give away or sell.



LOL!!  Back when we still had several operating landfills around the county, my then-wife always dreaded trash hauling day.  She referred to the landfill as the "trash exchange" and she claimed I sometimes came back with more than I took. She might have been right. ;-)


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## Kyle

Best class was "Agriculture 1"

By about the 6th week we could get the schools "farm truck" and tell the teacher we were headed to the school farm in Loveville, where the MVA and State Highway place are now, and make a pit stop at Third Base for 10oz refreshments along the way!


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## black dog

Kyle said:


> Best class was "Agriculture 1"
> 
> By about the 6th week we could get the schools "farm truck" and tell the teacher we were headed to the school farm in Loveville, where the MVA and State Highway place are now, and make a pit stop at Third Base for 10oz refreshments along the way!



 Yoder's can drive?


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## GURPS

mAlice said:


> My book shelves are jam packed with history, along with old civics, social studies, literature, physics...If the SHTF, I have my own library.




Audels books from the 1910 - 1940's  Plumbing, Carpentry, Electricity, Gardening  ....  etc 

good basic knowledge [most sets can be picked up from ebay for 20 - 50 bucks]


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## GURPS

black dog said:


> Edit,
> I believe they should give kids real life assessment tests when entering JHS and start to guide them on career paths that work with their positives.
> A kid that has 4-5 years worth of welding, body shop, nursing,cooking and so on will be so better prepared to enter the job market in a few years..




like the ASVAB [or whatever the military calls it now]  

if someone has a aptitude for college classes maybe a Gov Backed Scholarship with a aggressive repayment schedule 
if someone wants to buck the Aptitude  Scores and go to college, they pay their own way [bank / parents / work]


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## black dog

GURPS said:


> like the ASVAB [or whatever the military calls it now]
> 
> if someone has a aptitude for college classes maybe a Gov Backed Scholarship with a aggressive repayment schedule
> if someone wants to buck the Aptitude  Scores and go to college, they pay their own way [bank / parents / work]



  Seems so simple.. Take a test and see where you fit the best...


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## DoWhat

Merlin99 said:


> Vocational electronics, forty years later I still remember the theories I learned there.



I over E = ?


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## DoWhat

Joining the military.
It put me at were I am today.


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## black dog

DoWhat said:


> I over E = ?



 Burning barrels behind the latrines..


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## Monello

DoWhat said:


> Joining the military.
> It put me at were I am today.



I guess a whole lot of kids today wouldn't qualify for 1 reason or the other.  I know a bunch of people that got excellent training while getting paid to learn.  Others turn their nose up at military service like it's below them.


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## black dog

Monello said:


> I guess a whole lot of kids today wouldn't qualify for 1 reason or the other.  I know a bunch of people that got excellent training while getting paid to learn.  Others turn their nose up at military service like it's below them.



 A huge amount of kids can't pass the ASVAB and or drug tests to enlist...
 Out of the 240+ young men my son went through SOI with, a total of 7 scored 90 or better on there ASVAB exam.. We have  Navy and Marine recruiters that come to the Eagles I belong to and both have told me 30 to 60% of those that try to enlist can't.
 Because of poor scores under the minimum of 33 or 34 on their test or can't pass a drug or background check.. It's really sad...


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## MiddleGround

black dog said:


> A huge amount of kids can't pass the ASVAB and or drug tests to enlist...
> Out of the 240+ young men my son went through SOI with, a total of 7 scored 90 or better on there ASVAB exam.. We have  Navy and Marine recruiters that come to the Eagles I belong to and both have told me 30 to 60% of those that try to enlist can't.
> Because of poor scores under the minimum of 33 or 34 on their test or can't pass a drug or background check.. It's really sad...



In all fairness, and to add to the conversation, you do have to look where they are recruiting. They are not recruiting in the affluent neighborhoods where the children are better educated and have many life paths. Recruiting is a struggle. I did it for quite a long time and it turns into making the best of it that you can with what you have to choose from. For every "better educated" kid that came in, I had 50 kids that are probably still scraping paint off of the hull.


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## MiddleGround

DoWhat said:


> I over E = ?



Been a while huh?

Its I = E/R

So, E over I = R


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## Merlin99

dowhat said:


> E over i = ?


r..


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## Monello

MiddleGround said:


> So, E over I = R



I thought it was I before E, except after C.


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## black dog

MiddleGround said:


> In all fairness, and to add to the conversation, you do have to look where they are recruiting. They are not recruiting in the affluent neighborhoods where the children are better educated and have many life paths. Recruiting is a struggle. I did it for quite a long time and it turns into making the best of it that you can with what you have to choose from. For every "better educated" kid that came in, I had 50 kids that are probably still scraping paint off of the hull.



 That's a good point, and with that when they do recruit those upper class kids as I would bet they push College ROTC and come in as a first or second Lt..


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## limblips

MiddleGround said:


> In all fairness, and to add to the conversation, you do have to look where they are recruiting. They are not recruiting in the affluent neighborhoods where the children are better educated and have many life paths. Recruiting is a struggle. I did it for quite a long time and it turns into making the best of it that you can with what you have to choose from. For every "better educated" kid that came in, I had 50 kids that are probably still scraping paint off of the hull.



I too did the 36 one month tour duty.  It was tough in the 80's.  I always had a rule that I would never put someone in that I didn't want to serve with.  I surprised me who I would serve with on the 29th of the month!


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## Grumpy

Monello said:


> I thought it was I before E, except after C.


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## RoseRed

Grumpy said:


>



Weirdo.


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## Grumpy

RoseRed said:


> Weirdo.



Thank you so much.


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## RoseRed

Grumpy said:


> Thank you so much.



Anytime!


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## Merlin99

Monello said:


> I thought it was I before E, except after C.


Except for nouns


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## Kyle

Monello said:


> I thought it was I before E, except after C.



It is confusing... I learned it as E=MC²


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## black dog

Kyle said:


> It is confusing... I learned it as E=MC²



 Only above the equator when the water drains counter clockwise...


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## MiddleGround

black dog said:


> That's a good point, and with that when they do recruit those upper class kids as I would bet they push College ROTC and come in as a first or second Lt..



Actually no. When we did get a volunteer (and most were volunteers. NOT recruited. They walked in) that scored highly and looked to be an "optimal recruit" it was unfortunately our job to try to get them to fill a needed space. That often meant 'guiding' them towards a billet that WE needed to fill. After all, just because you scored high on the testing does not mean you HAD to take a billet that required those scores. I began to develop an eye for who were the best of the best.


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## black dog

MiddleGround said:


> Actually no. When we did get a volunteer (and most were volunteers. NOT recruited. They walked in) that scored highly and looked to be an "optimal recruit" it was unfortunately our job to try to get them to fill a needed space. That often meant 'guiding' them towards a billet that WE needed to fill. After all, just because you scored high on the testing does not mean you HAD to take a billet that required those scores. I began to develop an eye for who were the best of the best.



 We understand the game,,,
   I will say that both Marine recruiters that we spoke to along with one of my friends I served with that spent a few years as a Marine recruiter in Annapolis all tried to talk my son into college ROTC.
 My son chose not to and went infantry. His recruiter in St Marys treated him very well..
 My son did delayed entry for 5 or 6 months to get the MOS he wanted in the beginning of his enlistment. The Marines offered him about whatever he wanted, and he chose to be a grunt. 

 I would say what a huge waste of talent when recruiters take young men and women that test well and put them in MOS's that dont use the gifts they have to offer and push them into serving an MOS that will do nothing to enhance their career with or after there service is up....


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## limblips

black dog said:


> We understand the game,,,
> I will say that both Marine recruiters that we spoke to along with one of my friends I served with that spent a few years as a Marine recruiter in Annapolis all tried to talk my son into college ROTC.
> My son chose not to and went infantry. His recruiter in St Marys treated him very well..
> My son did delayed entry for 5 or 6 months to get the MOS he wanted in the beginning of his enlistment. The Marines offered him about whatever he wanted, and he chose to be a grunt.
> 
> I would say what a huge waste of talent when recruiters take young men and women that test well and put them in MOS's that dont use the gifts they have to offer and push them into serving an MOS that will do nothing to enhance their career with or after there service is up....



Putting someone in an MOS/Billet/Rate that they are way over qualified for can and often does result in problems for both the military and the individual.  Boredom with tasks and dealing with mundane jobs may cause the person to become a disgruntled employee which is why they should be pushed to jobs that match their aptitudes and abilities.


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## MiddleGround

limblips said:


> Putting someone in an MOS/Billet/Rate that they are way over qualified for can and often does result in problems for both the military and the individual.  Boredom with tasks and dealing with mundane jobs may cause the person to become a disgruntled employee which is why they should be pushed to jobs that match their aptitudes and abilities.



Agreed. Unfortunately billets had to be filled and there were far more paint chippers and floor scrubbers needed than scientists and scholars. Of course, I personally feel that there is no job in the armed forces that is not important however, I did my best to inject my own 'opinion' when overqualified recruits were being steered into a job that did not fit their intelligence.


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## black dog

limblips said:


> Putting someone in an MOS/Billet/Rate that they are way over qualified for can and often does result in problems for both the military and the individual.  Boredom with tasks and dealing with mundane jobs may cause the person to become a disgruntled employee which is why they should be pushed to jobs that match their aptitudes and abilities.



 I agree. It feeds poor behavior.  It seems every week or two that go by my son mentions someone he knows being NJP'ed for repeditive stupidness...


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## Merlin99

limblips said:


> Putting someone in an MOS/Billet/Rate that they are way over qualified for can and often does result in problems for both the military and the individual.  Boredom with tasks and dealing with mundane jobs may cause the person to become a disgruntled employee which is why they should be pushed to jobs that match their aptitudes and abilities.



I've also seen it go the other way, a guy with a math degree in deck department. An unlikely perfect fit, he was running the deck crane division in under a year.


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## Monello

black dog said:


> I agree. It feeds poor behavior.  It seems every week or two that go by my son mentions someone he knows being NJP'ed for repeditive stupidness...



Good to see that things haven't changed over the decades.


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## black dog

Monello said:


> Good to see that things haven't changed over the decades.


 
 When he was stationed at New River /Camp Geiger, Just outside of Lejeune, every weekend that they had Liberty a few young men would hit Tobys and get cranked up and taken advanage of by the dancers. Sometimes for a few hundred and sometimes for  few thousand.
 They really don't, a few weeks back his Company had their Marine Corps Ball in Vegas along with a 96. He talked down about most of the weekend until his Navy Federal Checking statement came.
 I threatened to open it up unless he came clean, and I was laughing for the next 45 minutes. Dances were 125.00 and up....


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## Monello

black dog said:


> When he was stationed at New River /Camp Geiger, Just outside of Lejeune, every weekend that they had Liberty a few young men would hit Tobys and get cranked up and taken advanage of by the dancers. Sometimes for a few hundred and sometimes for  few thousand.
> They really don't, a few weeks back his Company had their Marine Corps Ball in Vegas along with a 96. He talked down about most of the weekend until his Navy Federal Checking statement came.
> I threatened to open it up unless he came clean, and I was laughing for the next 45 minutes. Dances were 125.00 and up....



Oh the financial stories I could tell.

Had an E-3 buy a car in the mid 90s.  He had to get a chick magnet car.  Cost him $28K.  Not sure what the payments were.  Anyhow he couldn't afford both the payment and the insurance.  So he drove uninsured.  1 day he wrecked the car.  Now he was paying on a $28K pile of metal that didn't run and he couldn't afford to fix.  He could have had reliable wheels for around $5 -6k.

I remember when I was overseas in the mid 80s.  People having $600 monthly phone bills.  Calling home all the time.  That was a huge chunk of their monthly pay back then. Even today that's a lot of money.


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## black dog

I will say at least all of the Sergeant's my son has served under have been very very informative on not buying a new 400 hp Mustang and buying a 1500 dollar hoopie and live with that for the first three to four years.  My son doesn't want a car at Palms. He says it's to much trouble for now. He tells me about this young men that get married and or buy 600 a month cars.. crazy on 1000 to 1200 a month.. Mine gets his next bump to E3 Lance Corporal late this month and that bumps him to 1850 gross per month to start..


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## PeoplesElbow

Physics my senior year,  it is what made me want to be an engineer.  Until I took physics I had no idea what I wanted to do.


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## lucky_bee

black dog said:


> I will say at least all of the Sergeant's my son has served under have been very very informative on not buying a new 400 hp Mustang and buying a 1500 dollar hoopie and live with that for the first three to four years.  My son doesn't want a car at Palms. He says it's to much trouble for now. He tells me about this young men that get married and or buy 600 a month cars.. crazy on 1000 to 1200 a month.. Mine gets his next bump to E3 Lance Corporal late this month and that bumps him to 1850 gross per month to start..



My *first* marriage proposal was from a Marine I went to high school with. He was out in 29 Palms, was bored, wanted better BAH, and a new car as he'd just totaled his last little whip  

  so stupid


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## calvcopf

Junior ROTC. 

Prepared me for boot camp.


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## SamSpade

Monello said:


> I didn't know where to stick this topic.  This seemed like a good place.
> 
> What was the best class you took in high school?
> 
> Looking back the typing class I took in my sophomore year gave me the best bang for the buck.  I didn't realize it at the time but touch typing is a very useful skill that has served me well over the years.



I'm with you there. I actually got close to 100 wpm, but not without too many mistakes.
Still, this was the day of TYPEWRITERS and not word processors. Got me through a lot of college term papers.

I think maybe the other one would be Latin. For one, the teacher thought I was the greatest thing that ever happened.
She managed to get me an award a year AFTER I took her last class. But I learned enough Latin to learn enough
about etymology that helped for SATs, learning new words and appreciating ancient culture.

Everything else - all the math, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science - I had a LOT of it.
They even had to invent a class because I'd taken it all. Three years of bio, two of chem, one of physics and earth science,
and they created a class with logic and number theory.

I just consider those as prerequisites for college - they didn't so much yield a return and they certainly weren't fun.


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## SandieGarry

I have to say Shop Class. It convinced me that it was more of a career choice than anything. Thirty five years later, I've had a blast building things for a living.


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## luvmygdaughters

English, Biology and Psychology. Loved the teachers I had for those 3 classes.  I really think they should bring back the old Home Ec and Shop classes at schools!


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## Auntie Biache'

Speed reading.  Yes, my HS offered speed reading. I had to add this because my first response was more in line with my favorite.  The question was "best".


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## CPUSA

Monello said:


> I didn't know where to stick this topic.  This seemed like a good place.
> 
> What was the best class you took in high school?
> 
> Looking back the typing class I took in my sophomore year gave me the best bang for the buck.  I didn't realize it at the time but touch typing is a very useful skill that has served me well over the years.


Not really a class, more like a quick learning seminar...
The one where I learned how to affix compact mirrors to my shoes.
Very good information, right there...


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## LimeBF

History was my favorite class


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